


Sunrise

by JustAnotherWriter (N1ghtshade)



Series: Advent Calendar Gift Fics [3]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, ranch au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 20:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16839958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1ghtshade/pseuds/JustAnotherWriter
Summary: Instead of going to California after the Sandbox, Jack went home to Texas.





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissKittzyaBarnes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissKittzyaBarnes/gifts).



Jack switches off the garage light and sighs, closing the hood of the GTO and wiping his grimy hands on a rag. His watch reads 4:00 am, it’s now acceptable to go start getting the horses and cattle fed. He’s been up since two, another nightmare of Bolivia, of his time with the Deltas. He’s long ago learned that the only way to deal with them is to do something that reminds him he’s still alive. 

Some nights it’s repairing a bridle or working on the carved eagle he’s going to hang over the door when he gets it the way he wants it. Other times, like this, it’s tuning up the GTO. THe old girl really needed some new spark plugs, and Jack’s never one to make Pops’s pride a joy limp along on “good enough’ when he can make sure it purrs like a barn kitten. 

Jack tosses the old spark plugs into what he calls the “Mac box”, an old milk crate in the corner of the garage filled with the kind of useless junk the kid likes to play with. Mac has nightmares too, but his aren’t the same as Jack’s. His aren’t often of sand and blood and bombs and merciless sun. His are whispered apologies, pleas for someone to forgive him, saying he’s sorry, he won’t do it again. Jack knows without asking what Mac sees. 

Tonight, for once, the kid’s sleeping peacefully. Some nights their bad dreams coincide and both of them end up with grease under their fingernails and rust on their clothes, working on whatever on the ranch broke down that week. Like Jack, Mac needs to do something to get his mind off the nightmares. But Jack has a feeling what the kid does is just another remnant of the days he doesn’t talk about. Beucase it feels like the kid is proving that he’s useful. That he’s needed. That he’s worth keeping around.

Or at least that’s what it was like in the beginning, two years ago. When Jack first brought a lonely, scared kid back home from the Sandbox with his leg in a cast and ghosts in his eyes. Now, Jack sees less fear and more joy when the kid rips apart an engine or tears the toaster (or worse yet the entire stove) to shreds when he knows damn well they’re going to want breakfast in an hour. To his credit, it usually works better when he’s done and Momma’s got no complaints. 

It took very little convincing to get Momma to agree that Jack’s newfound stray could have his sister’s room now that she’s moved out and married. Momma never has been able to turn Jack down when he brings home something hurting, whether that’s a pheasant chick with a broken wing or a soldier who’s too young to be as scarred and damaged as he is. 

It was originally supposed to be temporary. But it seems like home, in California, has a lot of bad memories for Mac. So he’s just never left. And Jack’s okay with that. So is everyone else on the Dalton ranch. 

Mac’s done wonders with the tractors. Jack swears he’s never heard the Ford 8N purr like that in his life, not even when Pops was still alive. He can fix anything, even the equipment the hired hands were ready to scrap. It might be held together with duct tape and paper clips, but it works. And that’s all a small ranch can hope for. Trying to replace anything bigger than the lawnmower would be a hard cut in their finances. But Jack doesn’t really mind. That’s just the farm life.

The kid seems happy. He got a job at the local mechanics’ shop, and the days he’s not working there, he’s helping Jack out with whatever broke down on the ranch that day. He’s even dating some high school teacher now, who’s as big a nerd as he is. Apparently they met in the grocery store, both of them trying to buy the last carton of Rocky Road ice cream. Jack grins every time Mac rehashes that story. He’s glad the kid got a chance at a normal life.

The kid doesn’t really have too many people left. His friend Wilt is still in California, still trying to make it big in the film business. His grandpa died last year, and when they flew home for the funeral, Jack thought Mac might decide to stay. Instead, the kid packed up the few things he wanted to keep and followed Jack back to Texas. 

Speaking of the little blond devil, Jack can hear him walking downstairs, the odd little clump in his step where he still limps. Jack jokes that the kid who likes fixing things with random parts is lucky medical professionals used the actual correct plate and screws to repair his leg. Mac’s never going to walk without a limp, and his leg bothers him so much sometimes on cold mornings he’s barely able to stand, but he keeps going.

“Ready for stock checks?” Mac asks, already shrugging on his coat and grabbing Pops’s hat from the rack in the hall. Jack remembers the look on the kid’s face when he gave it to him.  _ Every cowboy needs a good hat. And seein’ as I already had one of my own… _

“Yeah, kid, I am.” He grabs his own coat and the two of them head toward the barn, Slippy the cattle dog rushing up from the barn to nearly bowl them both over. The dog’s taken a special liking to Mac, possibly a result of him saving her life when she got caught in the moving belt on the hay bale conveyor that loaded the square bales into the barn loft. Jack thought the dog was a goner but Mac figured out how to move the chains and sprockets just the right way to get her loose. 

Mac bends down to ruffle the dog’s fur and she licks his face enthusiastically. He laughs, really, properly laughs, and Jack can see the joy on his face in the first grey light of dawn.  _ It’s good to be home. _


End file.
